168 comments:

McCarthy shut us down in '05, then we routinely decimated him last year in relief.

Poor Brandon. As a flyball pitcher at the Cell, he must've been thrilled to hear he was traded. Then Ken Williams told him Texas, and he reverted to the fetal position.

One good theory for Matsuzaka's early control issues was his attempt to avoid homers at all cost, and so he nibbled too much. If there's any place, including Coors, where this will be challenged it's Arlington.

idea behind it:-leadoff hitter gets on so #2 hitter bunts him up (if i was in the NL i would want my pitcher in the #2 hole)-youk is red hot, so he should be in the 5 hole-drew is struggling so he should be dropped to #8 till he finds his swing

Roger Clemens will make a third and likely final Minor League start as he works toward duty in the Yankees rotation, tuning up on Monday with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. ...

Following the start on Monday, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner would have his fifth day align for Saturday against the Red Sox, a start that is presently lined up for Mike Mussina.

Because the Yankees have their top three starters -- Chien-Ming Wang, Mussina and Andy Pettitte -- set to pitch against the American League East-leading Red Sox, manager Joe Torre said it remains possible that Clemens could miss the Boston series entirely and make his debut against the White Sox in Chicago. ...

I wish I had saved the link but I'm sure that about 10 days ago one of the white, bearded, middle-aged sportswriters in the Toronto Star predicted that Fat Billy would avoid Boston because "that's what he does", or words to that effect. FB did not win over that demographic during his stay in TO.

Game is a long way from startingBy Nick Cafardo, Globe StaffARLINGTON, Tx - Well looks like a long night at the ballyard. The Rangers just announced this game won't start anytime before 8:30 p.m. central time. The current band of showers is expected to be around for at least the next hour. At that point they'll make another evaluation of the situation.

apropos of nothing: Anyone else INCREDIBLY amused that the Phillies fan in the Dick's Sporting Goods commercial (that's played during every MLB.tv break) who says "it's about friendship" is filmed a)from a distance, and b)alone?

not boneheaded - it was basically an infield fly type situation, but down the RF line so the rule was not in effect.

redsock - I've been getting a couple different "commercial" breaks this year. For a while it was just the Pacman (same game every time, I noticed) and then recently I've started getting the Dick's commercial and then Pong. Tonight I'm just getting Pong, except for the first couple breaks. I do love when they forget to cut away or are late on the cut, though... Don and Jerry chatting "off the record" is fantastic.

On the closeup of Sosa, you could see he dropped it, it landed right near him, he picked it up, looked in toward the infield and paused, like he had all day to get the ball to second. In other words, Pedroia had no chance. Nothing he could do.

Oh, I didn't mean I'm hearing Remy stuff tonight. The mlb.tv stuff I heard was from before I moved to Boston. I still use it for Yanks. But I'm, uh, using someone else's, so it's not like I'm paying for it....

The one good thing Drew has done is get off to a good start to avoid the relentless booing he'd be getting by now if he'd started the year playing the way he is now... but that will catch up with him if he doesn't et his ass in gear--soon.

jere, thanks for reminding me, I meant to post this earlier - The Frontal Cortex had a fun post today about the Yankees and the "Winner's Curse" (note: not an actual curse) that I enjoyed. Interestingly, this phenomenon is also mentioned on a site titled Joy of Economics. Weird. :)

"Gift" was the first song I ever crowd surfed to...or was it "Gee Angel"? One of the two for sure...either way, "More or Less" by Screaming Trees is my ultimate "having sex with your ex so you'll be depressed for a week afterwards" song...and nice catch, Lowell...

Haven't seen Marty's in a good while. Or the classic LM of R. But, I think that one's only in the southern NESN territory. I mainly get Foxwoods, and Subaru--feel the freedom! And of course, Empiire. Today! Although not today, ironically.

I love how Castig just described Eric Gagne as "That French-Canadian from Montreal..." Nice to hear an announcer put the sort of necessary disdain on those words that they deserve outside of the NHL...